26 MANUAL OF FARM ANIMALS 



The knees should be wide, deep, and straight. They should 

 be much broader in front than the rest of the leg, either above 

 or below. Breadth is desirable because the concussion is more 

 evenly distributed among the several bones forming the knee 

 joint. The bone forming the projection at the back of the 

 knee should be prominent, since this gives a better attachment 

 for the muscles and tendons which pass over it, thereby giving 

 the leg a deeper appearance and increasing the efficiency. The 

 knees are subject to many defects more or less serious, such as 

 calf knees, knock knees, spring knees, open knees, speed cuts, 

 scars, and the like. 



The cannons should be short, wide, clean, and the tendons 

 well detached. The back tendons should be parallel to the 

 cannon-bones, and there should be no shrinking below the 

 knees, as it indicates weakness. This defect is spoken of as 

 " tied in, " and is quite common among light horses. The cannon 

 should be free from bony growths and puffiness. Evidences of 

 firing or blistering to remove such growths are series of lines 

 on the cannons or roughened places caused by blistering. On 

 running the hand over the cannons they should be free from 

 gumminess, puffs, and bony growths. 



The fetlock joint should be clean, free from fullness due to 

 wind-galls, and should be wide, giving favorable attachments to 

 the tendons. 



The pasterns should be sloping and strong. When the horse 

 is standing, they should form an angle of 45 degrees with the 

 floor and 135 degrees with the cannons. The upright pasterns 

 cannot resist concussion, and bone diseases, such as ring-bones, 

 side-bones, and the like, are the result. Again, it lessens the 

 usefulness of the light horse, especially the saddler, as the step 

 is short and stilted and very disagreeable to the rider. On the 

 other hand, the pasterns are sometimes too long and slanting, 

 especially among thoroughbreds, which weakens them, and occa- 

 sionally ends in snapping the suspensory ligaments, resulting in 



